


Bright the Hawk's Flight

by gedsparrowhawk (FaceChanger)



Category: Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre: Gen, ged's apprenticeship, happy little family in re-albi post tehanu, tumblr ficlets, utter fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-08 21:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8863447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaceChanger/pseuds/gedsparrowhawk
Summary: two ficlets from tumblr that I wanted to gather together.1. a conversation between Ged and Ogion during his apprenticeship.2. a scene from Re Albi; Ged, Tenar, and Tehanu at peace at last





	1. Dragons on the Winds Of Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally published [on tumblr](http://gedsparrowhawk.tumblr.com/post/145402929216/something-about-geds-apprenticeship-to-ogion) for an anon who asked for "something about ged's apprenticeship to ogion, before he went to roke?"

The boy stands near the edge of the cliff, looking out over the glittering, endless sea. He’s a small figure silhouetted against the sky. He stands as if he is restraining himself, as if a part of him longs to run forward, to jump off the cliff face, and to sail high above the waves on falcon wings. Only the feel of earth beneath his feet holds him back.

Though still only a boy, Sparrowhawk’s face is harsh and proud. Sometimes Ogion catches him looking at him with something akin to contempt in his eyes, and he fears for the proud boy who must learn stillness, if not through Ogion’s teachings, then through sore trial.

“Come, Ged!” Ogion calls, for there is much to do in the day.

Ged turns - an unreadable expression flits across his face - and comes.

The boy’s pride is strange, easily pricked, and yet he is uncomplaining as he and Ogion air out the small house after the long winter. But Ogion, who knows him well, can see him biting back a question, the tail end of whatever thoughts occupied him as he stood at the edge of the cliff.  Ogion waits, knowing it will come out eventually.

When it does, though, it is not what Ogion had expected. “Master, are their dragons still, or have they all gone?”

Ogion looks at Ged, startled. “Of course there are dragons, although they have all gone far to the West now, near Selidor, or farther if the tales are true.”

“Oh, I had feared they were only stories.” Ged falls silent again. Then, “Have you ever seen them?”

Ogion smiles faintly, “I have seen them, once long ago, in my younger, more adventurous days, when I wished to do and not simply to be. They seem like great birds at first, dancing high above on the winds.”

“What makes a dragonlord, after all?” Ged asks, eagerly. “A man who masters dragons?”

“A dragonlord is nothing more than a man who can speak to dragons.” Ogion turns stern, “Listen, Ged, do not try to master a dragon, for it cannot be done. But there are some who can speak to dragons and trust that the dragons will speak in return, rather than killing them.” The last is accompanied by a wry smile, and Ged smiles hesitantly back.

“I should like to see them, one day,” Ged says.

“Oh, I think you shall,” Ogion answers. Ged is staring to the west again, a wistful look catching hold of him. “But not now! Now there is work to do. Do not scorn the work of your hands! For in the end, should all the words of the Old Speech desert you, still you would have that.”

Ged laughs, clear and pure as the winds of morning, and turns from the west, back to the work at hand.


	2. Bright the Hawk's Flight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally posted [on tumblr](http://gedsparrowhawk.tumblr.com/post/145075023986/earthsea-prompt-ged-tenar-tehanu-family) for an anon who asked for "earthsea prompt: ged / tenar / tehanu family bonding."

A new spring comes suddenly on the heels of their first winter in Re Albi, with a sudden blooming of flowers, their scent heavy in the clear mountain air. Tehanu’s newly-planted peach tree still survives beside the house, and she waters it faithfully, though by now it has grown enough to not need it. As the days grow longer, Ged takes Tehanu to gather herbs in the places Ogion taught him when he was a boy.

He need not tell her true names, and is glad of it, the words like ashy dirt upon his lips, like a waterless land he never quite left behind, but she is inquisitive and demands their Hardic names, which he tells her gladly enough. Sometimes she asks their uses, and if they have uses he tells her, but more often than not she is simply content to pull the ones he tells her to, or weave bright flowers in her hair or his.

It’s a bright clear day in early April when Tehanu stops in the middle of a forest path, her head cocked to one side, listening to something. They are on their way home, and a moment before she had been bounding ahead of Ged, as surefooted as a goat on the well-worn forest paths. She darts away for a moment, among the trees and the wildflowers, and then reemerges, something cupped gently in her hands. She coos at it, whispering to it words of the true speech. Ged looks over her shoulder, sighs, and says, “Let us go show your mother.”

They come along the path to the house slowly, Tehanu careful not to jostle her treasure. Tenar waits for them in the doorway of Ogion’s house – their house now, made theirs by their labor and their love.

Ged calls aloud to Tenar in Kargish, as they do when they don’t want Tehanu to know what they are saying, “She has found a baby bird!”

“Another for the menagerie?” Tenar laughs.

They have acquired a good number wild animals over the course of the year, as Tehanu runs through the open fields. She has a knack for finding life in need of saving, bringing home a lame rabbit or an abandoned kitten.

Tehanu glances at them sidelong, and for not the first time Tenar wonders if, among all the other secrets she knows her daughter keeps, Tehanu can understand Kargish better than she appears to. But she runs until she stands just in front of Tenar and cries out in Hardic, “Look!” She opens her hands to reveal a white chick, covered in down. “It had fallen from its nest. Ged says that it is a pilgrim falcon.”

Tenar looks up at Ged at that, who is still coming down more sedately. He is too far to hear if she speaks softly, so she says, “Once Ged flew to here from Osskil as a pilgrim falcon.”

Tehanu nods solemnly. “I can see it in him,” she says, and Tenar, who is used to her half-dragon daughter, is not startled by this revelation.

Ged comes up to them now, places a hand on the small of his wife’s back. He speaks the birds true name. The bird blinks at them, it’s small black eyes bright and trusting.

Once, Ged called a rabbit to them, Tenar remembers, and it came to them, and Ged had said that to catch it for dinner would be a breaking of trust. She sees the resignation in his eyes now, as the bird seems not to recognize the word from his mouth, so she wraps her hand around his and holds it like an anchor. Perhaps this is a similar trust, these animals in need of saving, calling to her daughter.

“Well, bring it in, then, Therru,” she says.


End file.
